Irish Hope For Chance With Louisville S Commit

The way in which recruiting has accelerated in recent years has allowed college programs to lock down top prospects earlier and earlier, but it’s also let more than a few to slip through unnoticed until the late stages of the process.

Major programs aren’t shy about circling back around and trying to pluck talented targets who may have been initially overlooked and that’s pretty much what Notre Dame is trying to do with TreSean Smith. 

The 2017 Ohio safety committed to Louisville back in the summer, but the Irish came in and extended an offer a couple weeks ago.

“Everybody is in such a hurry nowadays with recruiting that sometimes they can miss out on guys who start to develop their junior year because everybody wants to offer people at camps and this and that,” LaSalle High School head coach Jim Hilvert said. 

“Sometimes guys like TreSean end up on everybody’s radar now.”

Smith seems comfortable with his current commitment to the Cardinals. 

“I think it was a good fit,” the coach said. “I think they showed a lot of interest in him at first. It’s a program that’s been successful with Coach (Bobby) Petrino and them. It’s an hour and 45 minutes away from Cincinnati. It’s in the city and has been an up-and-coming program. I think it was a good fit for him and they showed a lot of interest.”

But the coach has explained why it’s important for Smith to look at all of his options and expects the senior safety to have similar talks with his parents. 

“I told him it’d be very important to him to have a conversation with his mom and dad again to evaluate where he’s at and what he wants to do just to make sure he’s dotted his I’s and crossed his T’s on this whole thing,” Hilvert said.

“When we were talking about it, I said, ‘You need to go to your board of what pros and cons are for your school from location, academics, football, relationships with the coaches and all of that. Then make a valuable decision on what you want to do and if you want to do anything.’” 

LaSalle earned its first outright Greater Catholic League South title with a win over Elder on Friday and begins the playoffs this week, so Smith has a lot on his plate.

“I think sometimes it gets overwhelming, but he’s done a pretty good job of taking it in stride,” the coach said. 

Hilvert arrived at the Cincinnati high school before Smith’s junior season and moved him from offense to defense.

“TreSean has come a long way,” the coach said. “Last year was his first year playing on defense. He used to be a receiver. He came in and, to be honest, he hit the ground running. He makes all of our calls back there. During the year last year, he just kept getting better and better and better. I believe he went on a stretch at the end of the season and into the playoffs where he made five or six interceptions. He’s kind of the quarterback of our defense back there with our defensive backs. 

“I saw him as an athlete. He was a basketball player too, he can run and do all of this stuff. I wondered if he could come up and pop people and he was able to do that. He’s very intelligent too, which is nice to have back there with him making all of our calls. I think our defense is a little bit more sophisticated than an average high school defense. He does a great job back there directing people. Just his athleticism, watching it last year, we needed to get him on the field all of the time and that was just a natural fit for him. He’s long, about 6-2, 185 pounds and very athletic.”

Hilvert said his defensive backs are pretty good in general, but as a coach, it’s nice to have somebody like Smith back there making sure everything runs smoothly. 

He still finds ways to take advantage of Smith’s ability on both sides of the ball, though.

“We’ve put him at a bunch of different places this year because he feels at home at safety,” the coach said. “Now he’s played Wildcat quarterback and receiver and made a difference at all of those positions. Teams have to worry about where he is on the field. He’s definitely a playmaker with the ball in his hands and being back there directing everybody and making big plays on defense.” 

Not surprisingly, Smith is a guy the coach can count on off the field as well.

“He’s one of our senior captains. He’s definitely a mature young man. He does well in the classroom and obviously does well on the football field.”